


come what may

by cheshireree (shyfoxes)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam - Freeform, Allura - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Building a Life, Coran - Freeform, Family Fluff, Ficlets, Gen, Getting to Know Yourself, Hinted Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Kuron (Voltron)-centric, Kuron likes Succulents, Kuron on Earth, Pidge - Freeform, Shiro - Freeform, Team as Family, hunk - Freeform, keith - Freeform, lance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-11 21:54:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15981284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shyfoxes/pseuds/cheshireree
Summary: Sometimes, Kuron lied awake in a bed he was still growing used to, in a body he was still growing used to, and counted his fingers.-Ficlets where Kuron survives and is his own person. It’s a hard road, and he tries to make sense of it all, but he’s getting there. Also, he really loves succulents.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk just wants Kuron to know he's more than just a clone.

The only knowledge Kuron had of Earth, he gained from Shiro. Snapshots that had once filled him with emotions on reflex, now felt detached and fake. He thought, once, that he knew what the sea smelled like, how grass felt, and the feeling of steam rising from hot, home-cooked food as he leaned over it; the feeling of tender, rough hands grazing his cheeks under the safe cover of bed sheets. Now, though, he couldn’t even seem to remember what Earth seemed to look like.

When they put him in another clone’s body, one whose mind had not been activated, all of Shiro’s memories had gone with them. It had only left the ones he’d made since he’d woken up. All the good ones, and the bad. The very bad. Sometimes, an echo of it would rise inside of him, just a hair’s breadth away, but never clear. He _knew_ about Earth, but what had tied it to him was gone now. It felt lonely. To exist with no tether to anything, no homeworld, no childhood, no past, and the uncertainty of a future thrust upon him so suddenly.

It scared him. Scared him to think he had set foot on countless planets while they created the coalition, only to feel as though the moment he touched down on where he technically, partially originated, might just undo him. Unmake him, turn him to seafoam and disappear in the currents. It wasn’t the dying that even scared him. He and Shiro had done enough of that between the two of them. It was the way he might come apart through it all.

A shadow fell over him. It was Hunk, studying him from where he was clutching a couple lunch boxes in his hands. Kosmo was not far behind, eating out of a bowl Hunk kept in Yellow for him. It was Hunk’s turn to house him. He’d been in each lion except Black so far, more out of his own self-consciousness than an actual lack of welcome. Sometimes Shiro looked like he really wanted to say something, but didn’t. Eventually, Kuron knew, Shiro would. He’d been him after all, the talk was coming. Hunk hummed.

“Hey, so I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Hunk started. “What do you want us to call you?”

Kuron had to blink at that. “Call me?”

“You know, a name. Doesn’t feel right to just technically call you ‘Clone’.”

Kuron frowned. “Isn’t that what I am, though?”

Hunk frowned back, juggling through the lunchboxes until he was dropping one in Kuron’s lap. He was wearing what Kuron had been calling his “Judgey Face”, a term he had definitely taken from Lance as he tried to unlearn Shiro’s manner of speaking. It felt odd when they both spoke so similarly that he had started to make time to try and change a little so as not to make things any weirder than they were.

“Well, yeah, but that’s not _all_ you are. Shiro’s back and Shiro again, so now you don’t have to be. You can be you.”

“But what I am is Shiro’s clone.” He was growing a little frustrated with this, opening his lunchbox a little too forcefully. Kosmo looked up at him for a moment before going back to eating. What was the point of a name?

“Yah, but now you don’t have to be. You can be what you want or who you want. So, you know, maybe the first step can be choosing a name?” Hunk continued. ““I know maybe it seems a little silly to you, but there’s a lot of power in names, you know? My sister didn’t feel complete without a new one.”

He gently rapped a knuckle to the top of Kuron’s head playfully. “If you want, you can always ask me and Lance to help. Talia took a whole month before she chose, so don’t feel like you need to rush. Just think about it.”

Kuron nodded down at his lunchbox. “Okay, then. I’ll think on it.”

“Cool, well, glad I got that off my chest,” Hunk said. “How’s the food by the way? I noticed you really liked those peppers I caramelized the last time. Shiro’s not that fond of them, actually.”

“Shiro likes boxed mac and cheese,” Kuron said bluntly. “You can’t trust his taste buds.”

Hunk barked out a laugh at that, a fully bodied sound that seemed to reverberate in Yellow, who almost seemed to laugh with him.  It filled Kuron with a warmth, and not just from the food settling perfectly in his stomach. His whole body hummed, ( _his!_ ), his mind and limbs aware of each other for once, like they’d never been apart.. He grinned around his spork at his companion.

“When we reach Earth, will you cook this again? I want it to be a part of the first Earth food I try,” Kuron said.

“Oh, buddy, trust me, when Mom and I get together, we’re gonna make a whole feast for you guys. Count on it,” Hunk told him, beaming. “Maybe you won’t be as bad a cook as Shiro is, either.”

“I - I look forward to seeing Earth then. Discover everything there.”

Hunk grinned. “And we look forward to showing you what we can, buddy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want him to be happy and grow lots of plants. I'm having writer's block so I'm doing tiny pieces a chapter just to keep myself writing.
> 
> Adam & Shiro are still broken up in the bg, but they're friends, and trying to figure out if they'll restart things. Meanwhile, he'll be friends with Kuron, like the others will, and they'll all be a family. That's it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuron and the gang land on Earth.

Kuron’s first experience on Earth was not what he was expecting.

Sure, he was expecting the big turn out of Garrison personnel to greet them. That was just protocol to a bunch of alien cat ships landing on Earth. Sure, he was expecting that maybe he would become overwhelmed by everything, maybe overwhelm a few people himself. Sure, he was expecting maybe even subpar food until Hunk could get access to a kitchen.

What he didn’t expect though, was Shiro’s ex-boyfriend standing there with his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose, and a tear rolling down his cheek as he and Shiro locked eyes.

He was rooted there, clipboard clutched tightly to his chest like a shield, something to falle apart  behind should he reach out to Shiro and the dream crumble before him. Shiro approached him first, legs wobbly and uneasy, starting off slow until he was running with all he had towards the other man.

 _“Adam!”_ Kuron had heard Shiro calling. “ _Adam!”_

When he was only a few steps away, Adam had flung the clipboard aside, arms opened wide. Shiro tackled him, scooping him up against him with his one arm, as Adam’s legs locked around his hips. He cupped Shiro’s face, dropping tears and kissing across his cheeks, until the two of them were sinking to the ground, murmuring softly to each other.

Behind him, Hunk aww’d just at the same time Pidge made a gagging sound. Kuron felt both of those moods at the same time.

  
When Adam looked up, though, to take a look at the crew Shiro had brought back, his eyes had immediately locked on Kuron. He pulled away from Shiro far enough to look at his face, then at Kuron’s then back again, and again, until he’d gone limp in Shiro’s lone arm.

Well, Kuron thought. That’s one way to make an impression.

It was the silence that was making Kuron sweat. And if he knew Shiro as much as he thought he did, his shirt was probably drenched by now, waiting as Adam looked over the two of them, his fingers laced together and settled under his nose. The lights overhead made his glasses shines, and his eyes unreadable. It was a little menacing to say the least.

“So let me get this straight,” Adam finally said. He nodded towards Shiro. “Takashi, you not only _did_ land on Kerberos, but you were abducted by aliens, fought in a gladiator ring, got _your arm chopped off_ .” He glanced to Kuron. “Got cloned. Came back to Earth, left again, and died before being resurrected into a clone body. Then had the clone’s mind whose body you now inhabit transferred into _another_ clone’s body.”

Shiro lifted his shoulders sheepishly, nearly touching his ears. The wobbly smile on his face made Kuron all the more uncomfortable. He tapped his fingers over the back of his other hand.

“Well, I also no longer have my disease?” Shiro added in, voice a little too high.

Adam scowled, slapping his hands down on the table, the sound reverberating and snapping Shiro’s mouth shut.

Good, Kuron thought. He was just digging himself back into his grave. Only this time the Black Lion was not about to come and get him.

“What am I even expecting?” Adam muttered to himself. “You couldn’t even boil water without some trouble. It wasn’t even the disease that got you. No, Takashi, you’re just the type to get _abducted by aliens instead._ ”

Shiro had no answer for that; Adam dropped his forehead into his palm, sighing. Adam put his fingers over his eyes under his glasses.

“I’m just,” Adam started. “I’m just happy you’re okay. That you came back. That you _all_ came back.”

Adam pulled his hands from his face, his eyes settling on Kuron. Something unreadable but soft washed across him, a tenderness that made Kuron squirm, like it was remembering something deeply ingrained.

“I didn’t forget about you. What do I call you?” Adam asked him.

Kuron swallowed. Again with this question. He wasn’t quite sure yet, but Kuron didn’t seem to be a popular name with the others, and he wasn’t attached to it that much, it was just what it was.

Beside him, Shiro reached under the table between them and gave his hand a squeeze. Kuron gave his double a sidelong glance, noting the softened way he was also looking at him. A few weeks back, he might have thought it to be pity. Now, though, he was starting to understand that it wasn’t. Not in the way he thought.

“For now, you can call me Kuron. I’m, uh,” Kuron struggled. “I’m still thinking of a name.”

Adam nodded. “Very well. Welcome to Earth, Kuron. I’m glad to meet you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean, I think it's kinda funny, but it's probably not LOL. Maybe I'll rewrite it. Maybe I'll first draft is last draft. Ok so maybe the adashi is a little bit more than hinted but yaknow what, i just wanted them to kiss.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuron goes clothes shopping. It's much harder than he realized.

For the first of many times, Kuron was conflicted and _frustrated_.

The Garrison had wanted the to stay on base for questioning and tests. _Wanted to_ were the key words Kuron had zeroed in on. Aside from the rundown of their journey, bolstered by Sam Holt’s own previous accounts, and a brief quarantine, Kuron and the Voltron Crew were out an about off base. In his periphery, Kuron could still see General Sanda stewing in her own anger, perhaps surprised that her orders were being so thoroughly ignored.

No matter her rank, all orders were nothing in the face of one Adam Wright, some rather angry and unrelenting mothers of certain cadets, the unmovable Mrs. Shirogane among them, and an alien space princess with all the determination of a tank rolling over a plastic cap. The Garrison had no choice but to agree to let the Paladins and Kuron free, with a few minor restrictions.

If they weren’t sleeping at the Garrison, they they _had_ to be at the homes of their own families or one of the Paladins’. They couldn’t be out past 10 PM. Once they arrived home they had to check in that they were home. They couldn’t go past the city limits, _yet_ , though Keith’s shack had been argued bitterly over and agreed to. No weapons, or lions were permitted to leave Garrison property. Though Kuron suspected that was also a silent _yet_.

If Allura decided tomorrow she wanted all her lions off planet, Earth’s dinky defences, bolstered as they were by what little Altean tech they had garnered from Sam Holt, would not be able to stop them.

So, that’s where it landed the Crew now. In a mall. A regular, normal Earth mall. After all Kuron had seen and done, Earth malls were so anticlimactic. The trays didn’t even float to you, which was kind of a bummer. But the normalcy of it all, the way he was just almost like a normal human, out and about with his - friends?

Which landed him in his current predicament: Clothes.

There weren’t many options up there in space. Shiro, along with the other members, save perhaps the Alteans, were limited in their clothing. More often that not, they’d dumped their clothes in a laundry chute as they showered for the night cycle and had it ready by morning in their rooms. They all managed to suffice with all of three outfits, sans the armor.

There were so many options now. Jeans, trousers, linen, cotton. The colors, the styles, the collar cuts. Kuron didn’t think something so simple as clothes could be so overwhelming.

He’d wandered around a shop, Romelle and Allura across the way in the Women’s aisle talking excitedly together, and stopped dead in front of a rack of clothes. The dark wash of colors, blacks and grays had drawn his eye immediately. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about them. They were plain shirts. He’d stop himself mid grab for a shirt, though, the voice in his head (it was his voice, he had to remind himself sometimes), nagging at him.

He thought to himself, _is this Shiro or me?_

He couldn’t help but fret once that thought had bubbled up. He looked from rack to rack, passing over bright blues and greens, the beige of a polo shirt, and landed on more dark colors again. Zippered vests, long, thin sleeved sweatshirts, dark jeans. He had wandered the entire section, halfway in and out of his body, eyes feeling cloudy as he passed over shirts and jeans, unable to reach out and take something. If he looked into a mirror right now, dressed in Shiro’s hand me downs, staring back at a copy of Shiro’s face - the top of his head was starting to feel hot.

“Are you all right?”

Kuron breathed out and looked down. It was Romelle. She smiled, a curious peek of white teeth and her blue markings crinkling at the corners. She laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Hi,” She greeted. She was always like that. It was a joke she and Hunk had developed. When they locked eyes with a friend, they couldn’t help the teasing little “Hi”. It made Kuron go lax under her hands, able to feel the rest of his body again.

“Hey,” He greeted back, wincing at how tired he sounded.

“You were looking a little pale, so I thought I’d come over and check on you,” Romelle said.

“Thanks. Where’s the Pr - Allura?” He replied, ears burning a little. He hoped no one else had seen his little episode aside from her.

“She’s trying on some clothes. She took a ton of them, so I think she’ll be a while. What about you? Find anything you fancy?” She continued.

Kuron floundered, looking back at the rack of clothes helplessly. His eyes gravitated towards a sky blue shirt; it was a pretty blue. It reminded Kuron of the desert’s clear sky when they’d driven with the top down out of the Garrison base. It had made him feel so small, so awed. He didn’t think it would look all that good on him.

“Not...really,” He said lamely.

“Having trouble then?”

“You could say that, I guess. I’m. Uh. I’m having trouble separating myself from Shiro.”

Romelle tapped her finger to her chin. “Trouble? You two aren’t conjoined, you know. Have you been fretting about what to wear?”

Kuron winced. No wonder she and Hunk got on. She could be so blunt. Hammer to nail dead on. Kuron couldn’t say that wasn’t why he liked her. No point beating around the bush, if he was being real. Still, it kinda stung.

“Yeahhh. It’s just. Every time I try to go for something else, it’s like my brain wants me to just...go back to old ways.” He hoped she understood that.

“Ahh. Well, perhaps you have to retrain it, then?” She offered. “I’ll help!”

Romelle leaned towards him, a hand shielding the side of her mouth, a very Lance move, and not-so-discreetly whispered to him. “Adam says Shiro’s taste in style is bad and that’s he’s lucky he’s so pretty he can pull it off. He and Lance are helping him to buy new clothes now.”

Kuron couldn’t help the ugly snort that came out. Poor Shiro. Not even around to defend himself. A smile worked its way up his face effortlessly without him knowing; Romelle mirrored one back.

“Now, then. What kind of color do you think you like? I’ve always thought you would look smashing in some blues!” She tapped her marking with an exaggerated wink.

Kuron couldn’t help the laugh then.

Exhaling, he reached for the shirt he’d seen earlier. A simple shirt, with a circular neck, and a decorative row of snap buttons down the middle, finished off with a little breast pocket. The material was soft, like Kosmo’s fur, and made Kuron feel good. Romelle hummed, nodding.

“Nice choice. Go try it on, I’ll be here,” She said. She pushed at his back, pretending that it was a massive effort for her, towards the dressing rooms.

Before he shut the curtain to the dressing room, he heard Romelle chirp Allura’s name. She said, “Guess what! Kuron wants help choosing clothes!”

He pulled his shirt off and hung it on a nearby hook. He didn’t look up at the mirror.

“I have some ideas!” The Princess replied back. “A shirt I passed by made me think of him.”

She must have brought it along with her. Romelle remarked that it was cute. He pulled the shirt up and over his head, smoothing it down. He shut his eyes as he turned away from the mirror and pulled the curtain back. Smile wobbly, he extended his arms in flourish.

“What do you guys think?”

Romelle and Allura clasped hands together, grinning brightly. “Wonderful!”

“Perfect!”

Kuron’s eyes spotted the shirt Allura had brought along. A short-sleeved button up, with clear set buttons, and a repeating pattern of what Pidge had told him were called succulents. Allura cracked a sly smile, one part smug pride and one part genuine happiness. She held it out to him.

“Like it do you? I thought it’d suit you,” She told him.

“Yeah,” Kuron said, taking it. He looked over it, grinning. “It’s perfect.”

Shopping went more smoothly after that. Any time he seemed to hesitate, Romelle or Allura were there. A few times he had flat out refused a shirt or two, giddy with the knowledge that he was developing _a style_ and a preference. It felt good.

He felt good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't even think about writing today and yet here we are?? That's fine in my book.  
> this was a VERY brief scene in the original one page only ver of this fic. where it just summed up Kuron's journey rather than on expand on how he came to be his own person.
> 
> I'm only just realizing he's kind of going chapter by chapter with each paladin (i'm so oblivious to my own fic wtf) but anyway. I don't even know who's gonna be next, there's no planning with this thing. Part of me wants to say Keith, but //shrug emoji.


End file.
